Wednesday, September 21, 2005

US Anti-Semitism: Could the Unthinkable Occur?

by Caleb CorbinSep 20, '05 / 16 Elul 5765

The shores of the United States have been a historical anomaly for the Jewish people. America is one of only a handful of nations on earth in which Jews have been accepted as equals, and accorded all of the rights, privileges and freedoms of her citizens.

America's first president, George Washington, wrote a letter in 1790 to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island: "May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants, while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid."

The words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty's pedestal echo the sated hunger of Jews in America after more than 17 centuries of unending global persecution and wandering:

The poem's author, Emma Lazarus, was Jewish. Fittingly, America's most visible symbol of freedom is wreathed with words breathed from a Jewish heart.

But despite America's pure foundations, the disease of anti-Semitism has surfaced from time to time throughout our history.

In 1862, General Ulysses S Grant, commander of the Union forces and later 18th president of the United States, issued General Order No. 11, which expelled all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. Upon receiving news of such order, President Abraham Lincoln immediately wrote to Grant, ordering him to revoke the order. Grant revoked the order three days later.

And Henry Ford, the American industrial icon and automotive baron of the early 20th century, was a rabid anti-Semite. He authored an infamous four-volume work entitled The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, which portrayed world Jewry as scheming together to take over the world.

Because it carried the Ford name, the work gained immediate notoriety and credibility in the eyes of many, spreading like wildfire and sowing the seeds for future anti-Semitism in the American consciousness. Today, The International Jew is one of the holy books of the American anti-Semitic population.

And what of today? How successfully has America fended off societal decay, of which widespread anti-Semitism is but a symptom?

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conducts an annual survey entitled "Survey of American Attitudes Towards Jews in America". Its 2005 findings were striking: a full 14% of the American citizenry, or 35 million people, hold beliefs that are "unquestioningly anti-Semitic". This is down from its 1992 survey, which categorized a full 20% of Americans as strongly anti-Semitic. The ADL's 2005 "Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents" recorded a total of 1,821 events in the US - a spike of 17% from the previous year.

As the annual survey shows, a resilient and hard-core base of Jew-haters reside in the US, with evidence suggesting a large part of this core is actively working to spread their poison across this nation.

One trend is of particular concern. Militant Islam is rapidly spreading its tentacles across America. One of the few Islamic moderates in this country, Muhammad Hisham Kabbani of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, estimated that "extremists" have taken over 80% of the mosques in the US. These extremists are working single-mindedly to turn America into an Islamic state, with the Koran as its foundation.

The campaign is being coordinated by both foreign and domestic elements. It is no coincidence that Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi pledged to Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam, an American militant Black Islamic group, one billion dollars in aid and support. Also, the Saudis are bankrolling the construction and staffing of dozens of mosques throughout the US. These mosques are exclusively propagating the militant Wahabbi form of Islam, the very religion which inspired the 9/11 attacks.

The campaign is not limited to mosques. It also includes Islamic community centers, newspapers, schools, youth groups, political organizations, professional associations and business activities - all involved in recruiting, training, supporting and coordinating its members.

Substantial segments within the Black American community are converting to militant Islam or have fallen under its influence. This is creating a real and present danger to American Jews. In late August, Los Angeles police discovered a major terror plot by three Black Islamic Americans affiliated with the Jamat-E-Masjidul Islam mosque. A list was found in their possession containing the addresses of several Los Angeles synagogues and the Israeli consulate. Police speculate the men were part of a network planning to attack these targets during the upcoming Jewish High Holy Days.

One week later, possibly in response to the arrests, the Nation of Islam called for a "jihad" against the Los Angeles Police Department.

Gravely, militant Islam has entered into and is directing much of mainstream Black America. The Millions More March (MMM) on Washington DC, scheduled for October 14-16 of this year, was created by Farrakhan to further the Black militant's agenda. Farrakhan appointed Malik Zulu Shabazz, the virulent anti-Semitic leader of the New Black Panther Party, as co-organizer of the event. Among many other anti-Semitic diatribes, Shabazz claims it was the Jews who enslaved Blacks and brought them to America. He also asserts the "Zionists control America, lock, stock and barrel."

Farrakhan and Shabazz have successfully courted and enlisted several mainstream Black organizations and political groups in the MMM campaign, including the 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, NAACP, National Council of Negro Women, National Progressive Baptist Convention, National Urban Coalition, Black Entertainment Television, the African American Leadership Institute, Rainbow PUSH Coalition and dozens of others.

A second trend of concern is the millions of illegal immigrants flowing into the US from Mexico and Central and South America. It is estimated approximately one million immigrants illegally slipped into the US from Mexico in 2004. As the 2005 ADL survey shows, 35% of foreign born Hispanics hold hard-core anti-Semitic beliefs, as do 19% of US-born Hispanics. Illegal immigration and high birth rates make Hispanics the fastest growing segment of the American population.

Hispanics, heavily influenced by the historically anti-Semitic Catholic Church, are quickly becoming a major force in America's political, cultural, judicial and social landscape. Hispanics already out-number whites in America's eighth largest city, San Antonio, Texas.

Please note that Hispanics and Blacks themselves are not, as a group, anti-Semitic, but the numerical quantity of individuals within these two groups has an increased tendency towards anti-Semitic beliefs.

American white supremacists are also seeing an explosion in growth. Mike McQueeney, a Ku Klux Klan leader in Wisconsin, said that since the 9/11 attacks, "Recruitment has definitely been up. That's not just with the Klan. It's with every white organization."

Throughout history, outbreaks of Jewish persecution would often follow on the heels of catastrophe. During the European Black Death, Jews were fingered as causing the pestilence by poisoning the wells. Thousands were massacred.

Ominously, in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, rumors that a visiting Israeli delegation stayed away from the World Trade Center were immediately picked up by the Associated Press and other mainstream media outlets and broadcast nationally. The implication, at best, was the Israelis knew in advance of the attacks. At worse, that the Israelis, or domestic or international clandestine Jewish groups, had perpetrated the attacks. The Internet is full of American anti-Semitic literature "proving" the Jews carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Many Americans are also buying the Islamic/anti-Semitic subterfuge that Islamic terror attacks against America are the result of America's support of Israel. By extension, the Jews are responsible for Islamic terror attacks against the US. Remove the Jews, the logic goes, and remove the cause of Islamic terrorism.

The great concern for American Jews should be whether history will repeat itself. Will the Jews, as they have in almost every other nation on earth, be held as the scapegoats for whatever future disaster befalls this land? And what will the reaction be if future terror attacks employ WMDs in one or more American cities?

As 9/11 shows, even the mainstream American media is not immune from singling out Jews in the immediate aftermath of a major terrorist event.

The trends in America are disturbing. History has an irritating way of repeating itself. America has been an anomaly, but anomalies are just that: temporary, isolated events, which eventually conform to pattern.

The question remains: Will America forever defy the historical pattern?